PICS: Thuli Madonsela to become a grandmother

Cape Town - Former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s daughter Wenzile is counting down the days until she welcomes a baby girl into the world.

Her first child with husband Khulekile Msimanga is due in just two weeks – but Wenzile’s secretly hoping the baby won’t arrive on Valentine’s Day.

“The due date is 15 February. Obviously they decide when they’re going to enter this world so I’ve just been hoping that she doesn’t arrive on mommy’s day which is Valentine’s Day,” Wenzile told YOU with a laugh.

Wenzile says Thuli is thrilled about becoming a granny.

“She knew long before I thought she knew,” Wenzile says.

She’d told her brother when she was 11 weeks pregnant and asked him not to tell anyone – but clearly he couldn’t keep the exciting news to himself.

He told Thuli, who’s now a professor at Stellenbosch University’s Law Faculty, making her promise not to tell Wenzile that she knew.

“I believed she didn’t know and I wanted to tell her in person so I waited until about two months later when she was in the country, but she already knew,” Wenzile says.

“What I really respected about that moment is that she never said to me that she knew and allowed me to feel comfortable in the space to tell her as if this was new to her.”

When her mother returned from a trip to America with larger clothing for her, Wenzile grew suspicious that her mother knew.

“When she came back from New York she bought me some clothes and these huge, puffy, maternity-looking clothes and I thought, ‘Surely not, she doesn’t know, maybe she thinks I’m fat.’ So she was still trying to be a parent without imposing on me.”

As soon as I told her she was supportive from the get-go. She’s just been an absolute gem and I couldn’t imagine doing this without her,” Wenzile says.

The excited grandmother-to-be even bought the baby a romper with the words ‘I love Harvard’ and ‘Harvard 2035’ on it.